Dr. Wesley W. Chu is a Distinguished Professor (emeritus) at the University of California, Los Angeles. His academic background includes B.S. and M.S. degrees (EE) from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. (EE) from Stanford University.

Early in his career, Dr. Chu worked on the design of large-scale computers at IBM; this was followed by a three-year stint at Bell Laboratories and a focus on computer communications and distributed databases. He joined the faculty of UCLA in 1969 and later served as department chair for three years. Dr. Chu is the author or coauthor of more than 150 articles, an editor of three textbooks on information technology, and the co-editor of a reference book on data mining.

Early in his career, Dr. Chu's research focus was on computer communication and networks, distributed databases, memory management, real-time distributed processing systems, and statistical multiplexing - the latter contributing to the development of ATM networks. His pioneering work in file allocation and directory design for distributed databases aided the design and development of domain name servers for the web and current cloud computing systems. Dr. Chu was named an IEEE Fellow for his contributions in these areas.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Chu's research interests evolved to include intelligent (knowledge-based) information systems and knowledge acquisition for large information systems. Using his methodology for relaxing query constraints, he led the development of CoBase, a cooperative database system for structured data, and KMed, a knowledge-based multimedia medical image system.

Under the KMed project, a Medical Digital Library was developed that provides approximate content-matching and navigation; the library will serve as a cornerstone for future paperless hospitals. In recent years, Dr. Chu also worked on inference techniques for data security and privacy protection (ISP) and social network-based recommender system (SNRS).

Together with his students, Dr. Chu has received numerous best paper awards at conferences and workshops, and also a certificate of merit for work on the Medical Digital Library system. He is the recipient of the IEEE Computer Society's Technical Achievement Award for contributions to intelligent information systems.

Service to the technology community has been a significant factor in Dr. Chu's career: ACM SIGCOMM chairman for three years; associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Computers for Computer Networking and Distributed Processing Systems for four years; chair, co-chair or technical chair of numerous workshops and conferences on systems management, data communications, very-large databases, information knowledge sharing, and entity relationships. For his services to IEEE, he received both a meritorious award and a certificate of appreciation.